Seeking to exploit the exposed salient in the Confederate lines during the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, Grant repeatedly threw Hancock's corps at the threatened Confederate defenses. Though a breach was briefly achieved, the nearly 22 hours of assaults were ultimately repulsed. Cannan's study of this episode is part of the Battleground America series that combines concise narrative, modern-day photographs, and detailed maps.

review of Bloody Angle: Hancock's Assault on the Mule Shoe Salient: May 12, 1864, by Cannan, John, Civil War Book Review, (Summer 2003).